03:56 EDT, 10 May 2021 7 shares A gourmet gluten-free foodie drawn into being part of a "staggeringly sophisticated" multimillion-dollar tax scam to pay for a friend's luxury mansion has escaped jail. Melinda Jane Trembath, 45, creator of food company Melinda's Gluten Free Goodies, apparently believed she was joining the lifelong family friend in researching cancer. Instead, the mother of three became a vital cog in a $3.6 million bid to defraud the Australian Taxation Office through a fake research and development tax offset claim. The family friend, who has been charged but is yet to face court, was described as the main instigator of the elaborate scam. She had lost her mother to cancer after she had previously taken part in clinical cancer research trials.